Advanced Energy Technologies and Grid Efficiency Act of 2020

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 4727 To require the establishment of an advanced energy technology research initiative and an advanced energy technology and modeling grant pro- gram, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES SEPTEMBER 24, 2020 Mr. WHITEHOUSE introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources A BILL To require the establishment of an advanced energy tech- nology research initiative and an advanced energy tech- nology and modeling grant program, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Advanced Energy 4 Technologies and Grid Efficiency Act of 2020’’. 5 SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6 In this Act: 7 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 4727 IS (1) ADVANCED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY.—The 1 term ‘‘advanced energy technology’’ means any en- 2 ergy generation, modifying transmission loading, or 3 storage technology with zero or minimal greenhouse 4 gas emissions that is connected— 5 (A) to the distribution system; 6 (B) to the transmission system; or 7 (C) behind the meter. 8 (2) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The term ‘‘Advi- 9 sory Committee’’ means the advisory committee es- 10 tablished under section 3(a)(2)(A). 11 (3) COMMISSION.—The term ‘‘Commission’’ 12 means the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 13 (4) ELECTRIC UTILITY.—The term ‘‘electric 14 utility’’ has the meaning given the term in section 15 3 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 16 (5) GRID OPERATOR.—The term ‘‘grid oper- 17 ator’’ means— 18 (A) a Transmission Organization, includ- 19 ing— 20 (i) an Independent System Operator; 21 and 22 (ii) a Regional Transmission Organi- 23 zation; 24 (B) a public utility; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 4727 IS (C) an electric utility. 1 (6) INDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR.—The 2 term ‘‘Independent System Operator’’ has the mean- 3 ing given the term in section 3 of the Federal Power 4 Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 5 (7) INITIATIVE.—The term ‘‘Initiative’’ means 6 the Advanced Energy Technology Research Initiative 7 established under section 3(a)(1). 8 (8) PUBLIC UTILITY.—The term ‘‘public util- 9 ity’’ has the meaning given the term in section 10 201(e) of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 824(e)). 11 (9) REGIONAL TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION.— 12 The term ‘‘Regional Transmission Organization’’ 13 has the meaning given the term in section 3 of the 14 Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 796). 15 (10) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ 16 means the Secretary of Energy. 17 (11) TRANSMISSION ORGANIZATION.—The term 18 ‘‘Transmission Organization’’ has the meaning given 19 the term in section 3 of the Federal Power Act (16 20 U.S.C. 796). 21 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 4727 IS SEC. 3. POWER SYSTEM MODELING REFORM AND UPDATES 1 TO GRID SERVICES AND GRID OPERATOR 2 SOFTWARE. 3 (a) ADVANCED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH 4 INITIATIVE.— 5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 days after 6 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission, 7 in coordination with the Secretary, shall establish 8 within the Office of Energy Policy and Innovation of 9 the Commission an initiative, to be known as the 10 ‘‘Advanced Energy Technology Research Initiative’’, 11 to research and provide recommendations on how to 12 improve the modeling, operational, and planning 13 practices used for the bulk electric system. 14 (2) ADVISORY COMMITTEE.— 15 (A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 16 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 17 the Commission, in coordination with the Sec- 18 retary, shall establish an advisory committee to 19 research, report on, and provide recommenda- 20 tions on matters relating to the Initiative, in- 21 cluding— 22 (i) whether the existing modeling (in- 23 cluding power flow modeling) and long- 24 term and short-term planning practices 25 used by grid operators for power systems, 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 4727 IS including power markets, adequately incor- 1 porate expected integration with respect to 2 advanced energy technologies; 3 (ii) whether the methods used to de- 4 termine future transmission and capacity 5 needs and make reliability-related deter- 6 minations use the right data to adequately 7 forecast and model the integration of ad- 8 vanced energy technology into electric 9 power systems; 10 (iii) whether the modeling and plan- 11 ning practices described in clause (i) and 12 the methods described in clause (ii) need to 13 be updated to better account for the inte- 14 gration of advanced energy technology into 15 electric power systems; 16 (iv) any undue barriers to the adop- 17 tion of advanced energy technology pre- 18 sented by— 19 (I) existing modeling, oper- 20 ational, and planning practices; and 21 (II) State estimation tools for 22 planning and reliability; 23 (v) any need to develop emerging 24 technologies or software for use in improv- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 4727 IS ing modeling, planning, and operations in 1 wholesale electricity markets to resolve 2 computational or technical barriers to the 3 adoption of advanced energy technology, 4 including software relating to— 5 (I) the use of big data, artificial 6 intelligence, and probabilistic methods 7 to predict, in near-real-time— 8 (aa) energy generation from 9 variable and distributed re- 10 sources; 11 (bb) load profiles; and 12 (cc) consumption and con- 13 gestion; and 14 (II) the use of artificial intel- 15 ligence to improve the responsiveness 16 of energy system operations; 17 (vi) whether existing and future grid 18 reliability service definitions and the mod- 19 eling techniques, operational processes, and 20 planning processes used to procure grid re- 21 liability services— 22 (I) appropriately account for the 23 technical and operational characteris- 24 tics of advanced energy technologies; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 4727 IS (II) allow for the use of those ad- 1 vanced energy technologies to provide 2 grid reliability services when cost-ef- 3 fective to do so; and 4 (III) include appropriate cyberse- 5 curity safeguards; and 6 (vii) any rulemaking, technical con- 7 ference, or policy statement that, in the de- 8 termination of the Advisory Committee, 9 the Commission should consider. 10 (B) COMPOSITION.—The Advisory Com- 11 mittee shall consist of— 12 (i) not fewer than 1 representative 13 from each of— 14 (I) the Commission; 15 (II) the Department of Energy; 16 (III) the Electric Reliability Or- 17 ganization (as defined in section 18 215(a) of the Federal Power Act (16 19 U.S.C. 824o(a))); 20 (IV) an Independent System Op- 21 erator or a Regional Transmission Or- 22 ganization; 23 (V) an entity generating electric 24 power that is not affiliated with a 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 4727 IS transmission-owning public or non- 1 public utility; 2 (VI) an entity generating electric 3 power that provides power directly to 4 wholesale or retail customers and is 5 not affiliated with a transmission-own- 6 ing public or nonpublic utility; 7 (VII) an environmental organiza- 8 tion with expertise on the bulk electric 9 system; and 10 (VIII) an institution of higher 11 education with expertise on the bulk 12 electric system; 13 (ii) not fewer than 2 designees of the 14 National Association of Regulatory Utility 15 Commissioners; 16 (iii) not fewer than 4 representatives 17 from public utilities or electric utilities, re- 18 gardless of whether the utility is in an area 19 serviced by an Independent System Oper- 20 ator or a Regional Transmission Organiza- 21 tion; and 22 (iv) not fewer than 2 representatives 23 from private and nonprofit associations 24 with expertise in the development, deploy- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 4727 IS ment, and use of advanced energy tech- 1 nologies. 2 (C) REPORTS.—Not later than 18 months 3 after the date of enactment of this Act, and 4 every 2 years thereafter for 10 years, the Advi- 5 sory Committee shall submit to the Committee 6 on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate 7 and the Committee on Energy and Commerce 8 of the House of Representatives a report on the 9 Initiative, including the findings or rec- 10 ommendations of the Advisory Committee with 11 respect to the matters described in clauses (i) 12 through (vii) of subparagraph (A). 13 (b) ADVANCED ENERGY TECHNOLOGY AND GRID 14 SERVICES PROGRAM.— 15 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 16 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Sec- 17 retary shall establish a competitive financial assist- 18 ance program, to be known as the ‘‘Advanced En- 19 ergy Technology and Grid Services Program’’, under 20 which the Secretary shall enter into Federal finan- 21 cial assistance agreements with eligible entities de- 22 scribed in paragraph (2) for the purpose of increas- 23 ing the market penetration of advanced energy tech- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 4727 IS nology through advanced research and development 1 and pilot demonstrations of— 2 (A) software upgrades, including upgrades 3 to the software platforms used to operate 4 wholesale energy markets; 5 (B) updated power system planning; 6 (C) new power system (including power 7 market) modeling platforms; 8 (D) cybersecurity and physical security up- 9 grades; and 10 (E) resilience upgrades. 11 (2) ELIGIBLE ENTITIES DESCRIBED.—An eligi- 12 ble entity referred to in paragraph (1) is— 13 (A) a grid operator; 14 (B) a State public utility commission; 15 (C) an energy cooperative; 16 (D) a municipality; 17 (E) an electric utility; 18 (F) a gas utility; or 19 (G) a State energy office. 20 (3) ELIGIBLE ACTIVITIES.—The Secretary may 21 enter into a financial assistance agreement under 22 this subsection for— 23 (A) software upgrades by grid operators; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 4727 IS (B) new power system (including power 1 market) modeling platforms; 2 (C) enhancements to cybersecurity safe- 3 guards; or 4 (D) updated power system (including 5 power market) planning, updated power system 6 (including power market) modeling, or updated 7 reliability planning and modeling by grid opera- 8 tors. 9 (4) COST SHARING.—In awarding Federal fi- 10 nancial assistance (including grants, loans, and any 11 other form of financial assistance) to fund eligible 12 activities under this subsection, the Secretary shall 13 require cost sharing in accordance with section 988 14 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 15 16352). 16 (5) COORDINATION.—In carrying out the Ad- 17 vanced Energy Technology and Grid Services Pro- 18 gram established under this subsection, the Sec- 19 retary, to the maximum extent practicable, shall co- 20 ordinate with existing programs of the Department 21 of Energy that focus on grid modernization efforts. 22 SEC. 4. ADVANCED ENERGY AND GRID EFFICIENCY STUD- 23 IES AND REPORT. 24 (a) STUDIES.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •S 4727 IS (1) ADVANCED ENERGY STUDY.—The Sec- 1 retary, in coordination with the Commission, shall 2 carry out a study of the costs and benefits to con- 3 sumers of updating power system planning, mod- 4 eling, and operational practices, including reliability- 5 related planning, and energy market participation 6 rules on advanced energy technologies and resources, 7 including distributed energy technologies and re- 8 sources, such as— 9 (A) energy storage technologies; 10 (B) energy efficiency and transmission effi- 11 ciency technologies; 12 (C) distributed solar and wind energy gen- 13 eration; 14 (D) fuel cells; 15 (E) smart thermostats and smart building 16 technologies; 17 (F) demand response technologies, includ- 18 ing natural gas demand response technologies; 19 (G) advanced metering technologies; 20 (H) electric vehicles and electric vehicle 21 charging infrastructure; 22 (I) any aggregation of the distributed en- 23 ergy technologies and resources described in 24 subparagraph (A) or (C); and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 13 •S 4727 IS (J) any other advanced energy tech- 1 nologies, as determined by the Secretary. 2 (2) GRID EFFICIENCY STUDY.— 3 (A) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary, in co- 4 ordination with the Commission, shall carry out 5 a study of the barriers and opportunities for 6 advanced energy technologies that provide in- 7 creased, more efficient, or more effective deliv- 8 ery over the existing transmission network. 9 (B) REQUIREMENTS.—The study under 10 subparagraph (A) shall include— 11 (i) an examination of— 12 (I) the reliability, resilience, and 13 economic benefits of technologies such 14 as power flow control, topology opti- 15 mization, and dynamic line ratings; 16 (II) the costs, benefits, and chal- 17 lenges associated with deployment of 18 the advanced energy technologies de- 19 scribed in subparagraph (A); and 20 (III) the impact of grid efficiency 21 improvements on wholesale and retail 22 electricity rates; and 23 (ii) an analysis of the benefits of per- 24 formance-based financial and regulatory 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:43 Oct 17, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S4727.IS S4727 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 14 •S 4727 IS incentives in the deployment of advanced 1 energy technologies relative to the cost-of- 2 service of those [Text truncated for display. 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